Quality Key Points

• Quality assurance refers to any action directed toward providing consumers with goods and services of appropriate quality. Although craftspeople were attentive to quality, the industrial revolution moved responsibility for quality away from the worker and into separate staff departments. This had the effect of making quality a technical, as opposed to managerial, function. This thinking carried through Western industry until about 1980. • W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran taught techniques of quality control and management to the Japanese in the 1950s. Over the next 20 years, Japan made massive improvements in quality, while the quality of U.S. products increased at a much slower rate. • Four significant influences brought about the “quality revolution” in the United States in the 1980s: consumer pressure, changes in technology, outdated managerial thinking, and loss of national competitiveness. Quality assumed an unprecedented level of importance in the United States. The quality movement has influenced not only product and service improvements, but the way in which organizations are managed, leading to the concepts of Big Q – managing for quality in all organizational processes as opposed to simply in manufacturing, referred to as Little Q, and of total quality management (TQM). • Quality initiatives have had their share of failures and disappointments, many of which resulted from poor management. Aligning and integrating quality principles into all fundamental business activities underlies the concept of performance excellence. Six Sigma, a customer-focused and results-oriented approach to business improvement, is revitalizing a focus on quality in the 21st Century. • Many forces are influencing the future of quality, and suggest that organizations must better prepare and train employees in the philosophy and tools of quality management and that business leaders take...

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Week 9 Written Assignment
October 19, 2014
When speaking with others who are older or younger than I, I don’t feel I have a problem with it. Because my son is 28 and I have many of his friends around me all the time I feel that I keep up with their world pretty well. As far as older folks, I again have no issue. I was born 19 years after my sister and 15 years after my brother, my parents were 40 and 50 when I was born. Therefore, all of my family were older and I relate to them very well. I rather enjoy talking with older folks, I find they are a wealth of information and I love to hear what they have to say.
Disabled people again I find very easy to talk to as well, my father was paralyzed when I was 13 due to a stroke and my mother was disabled as a teenager due to Scarlet Fever and walked with a very pronounced limp. Because of this I don’t see people as disabled but people who have overcome a great challenge and rose to the occasion. Because of this they have an insight that those of us who are disabled do. They can see things different and are more in tune to things. I find some with a handicap very interesting and exciting to talk with. I have learned much though the years from many people who are disabled.
Opposite gender folks I have no issue communicating with either, I find it just as easy to talk to a male as I do a female. I grew up around many males so I learned young that “boy” like different things than “girls” do. I learned to...

...Concepts and key practices
Kaizen is a Japanese philosophy based on gradual but ongoing and never-ending day-to-day improvement approach in all aspects of an organization, not only productivity. Literally Kaizen translates to English as “good change”, the true meaning of the word is continuous improvement implemented through positive step-by-step changes. For proper functioning Kaizen requires active participation from everybody at all levels in an organization: from the top management down to the lowest skilled workers, since the philosophy assumes that everybody has an interest in improvement, not just at work but in all aspects of life.
Kaizen is based on three main points:
Waste elimination
Standardization
Management of workplace
On elimination of waste, Kaizen transpires with the concept of lean manufacturing where efforts are applied to tackle with Muda (the seven wastes relating to activities which are non-value adding), but also Mura (related to unevenness especially in demand and supply arrangements) and Muri (related to overburden and excessiveness).
Standardization helps the organization be efficient in all aspects including production by being structured and adopting best-for-purpose practices leading to efficiency and harmony at work which in turn facilitate the attainment of the above mentioned waste elimination and effectively reaching organization targets.
Management of workplace or good housekeeping also relates and overlap...

...What is quality?
Quality is a measure of how good and satisfying a product is to the consumer. The ISO standard explains quality as "the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs." Meaning that the quality of a product/service is defined in matter of the features it presents to the customer and the rate of satisfaction it is providing to its user/consumer. The quality depends not only on its features it depends on the following aspects: Good design (it’s looks and style), Good functionality (it does it’s intended job), Reliable (acceptable level/non breakdowns or failure), Consistency, Durability (how long it lasts or lasts as it should), Good after sales service, and the Value for money (price paid), all summing to the point of gaining the best customer experience and satisfaction.
Why is it so important today?
With Quality comes customer satisfaction hence customer loyalty to the company/supplier thus making a repetitive purchases and introduction of the products to their friends. Now in the modern market there is more competencies between companies, and it is mostly based on quality, according to the company’s product quality the company’s success is rated, due to the aspects the product’s quality brings to the company as mentioned above the...

...MANAGEMENT OF QUALITY
Introduction
Quality refers to the ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer requirements or expectations. Different customers will have different requirements, so a working definition of quality is customer-dependent.
In order to rebuild its economy after the Second World War, Japan focused on quality improvement, making it a national imperative. This took place during a time when quality was not uppermost in the minds of business organizations worldwide. It wasn’t that quality was unimportant, it just wasn’t very important.
Partly because of that thinking, Japanese companies captured a significant share of the U.S. market. In the automotive sector, leading Japanese manufacturers Honda, Nissan, and Toyota became major players in the auto sales market in the United States. Both Honda and Toyota built a reputation for quality and reliability in their cars.
Many companies changed their views about quality after that, and changed them drastically. Stung by the success of Japanese competitors, they embraced quality in a big way. They hired consultants, sent their people (including top executives) to seminars, and initiated a vast array of quality improvement programs. Those companies clearly recognized the importance of quality and realized that...

...quality management history, gurus, TQM theories, process improvement, and organizational 'excellence'
The history of quality management, from mere 'inspection' to Total Quality Management, and its modern 'branded interpretations such as 'Six Sigma', has led to the development of essential processes, ideas, theories and tools that are central to organizational development, change management, and the performance improvements that are generally desired for individuals, teams and organizations.
These free resources, materials and tools are an excellent guide to the quality management area, for practical application in organizations, for study and learning, and for teaching and training others.
These free pdf materials are provided by permission of the UK Department of Industry - now the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - which is gratefully acknowledged. The materials listed and linked from this page are subject to copyright.
Please note that since the replacement of the UK Department of Industry by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the branding on the materials is now obsolete. Nevertheless, since the Quality Management technical and historical content is unaffected by the DTI branding the materials remain relevant for training, learning and reference.
It is appropriate to note the passing a little while back now, of Joseph Juran, a seminal figure...

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Outline what you see as the continuing value of quality management programs. How are they relevant to businesses today? How might they assist firms to cope with the transition to a sustainable economy, for example, or deal with other challenges facing business today?
INTRODUCTION
Quality is a very important factor in the current market. Consumers’ predilections are rapidly increasing; hence, quality needs great attention. In this day to day economy customers seek goods and services that have value for their money. Innovation in the form of technology has overlooked the geographical boundaries of making consumers more informed and market place advance from indigenous to international. There has been great competitiveness in the current markets which is now causing companies universally to find means of exceeding their business performance and to increase their credibility due to globalization. To help overcome, this affliction, management should adopt and implement quality management programs that improves efficiency and reduces competitive disadvantages. This essay will be focusing on the Kaizen approach and Total Quality Management (TQM) application within businesses. Either of these two approaches should help shape a business in a way they obtain information and have a thorough culture of quality within their scheme. It will also discuss the relevance of management programs to...

...apparition of a woman”, walking with “with measured steps, draped in striped and fringed cloths, treading the earth proudly, with a slight jingle and flash of barbarous ornaments…She was savage and superb, wild-eyed and magnificent; there was something ominous and stately in her deliberate progress” (56). The native woman is draped in ornaments of regional wealth, thanks to Kurtz’s doings. She seems to have some sort of mystical influence over Kurtz and the other natives, and the Russian trader hints that she is one to fear. Kurtz’s Intended “had a mature capacity for fidelity, for belief, for suffering” (69). Her “dark eyes looked out to [Marlow]. Their glance was guileless, profound, confident, and trustful”.
Both women have a discerning quality about them, even without them saying one word. The native woman is dark and mysterious, while Kurtz’s Intended is pale and woeful. The Intended lives in luxury, also thanks to Kurtz’s success in the Congo. The wealth displayed by both women serves to keep them in their place as well as to display Kurtz’s accomplishments.
The general attitude towards women is that they symbolize the facets of civilization, and are a constant reminder to men what awaits them back home. Men, inspired by their women, take risks in attempt to make economic success while women represent the civilized way of life.
After the death of his helmsman, Marlow says “I will never hear that chap speak after all, and my sorrow had a startling...